The price of WTI oil adjusted to the level of $74.85 per barrel. Over the previous five trading sessions, oil rose in total by more than 7%, which was due to expectations of a recovery in demand and risks around supply.
Traders are expecting statistics on oil reserves in the United States for the past week today. Analysts believe that commercial oil reserves in the country have decreased by 2.3 million barrels. This could be the eighth consecutive week of inventory declines. In recent weeks, the rise in oil prices has been associated with several factors, the key of which is the downward trend in world reserves against the background of a slight supply shortage. For the oil market in recent years, any deviation from the balance of supply and demand per million barrels per day contributes to the formation of a stable trend, which indicates the inelasticity of the market.
The process of restoring oil production in the United States after Hurricane Ida is slow. According to the latest data from the Energy Information Administration, production is 10.6 million barrels per day compared to 11.5 million before the hurricane. The slow recovery of production in the United States is accompanied by the gradual depletion of reserve wells. This means that it is still far from the levels when drilling activity will be able to ensure sustainable production growth. The number of drilled but unfinished wells has been declining for 12 months in a row, and this process will continue in the near future.
The forecast expects a further decline in the price of WTI oil to the levels of 74.6, 74.3 and 74 dollars per barrel.